For the Duration
by puravidaloco
Summary: Missing Scene/Tag to the end of ST:ID. What I imagine might have been the scene in the hospital before Jim wakes up. Featuring Spock, Bones, Sulu, and an unconcious Jim Kirk. No Slash. Rated T for swear words.


A/N. Hey everyone! Its good to be back. I have been inspired by the new movie and have managed to crank out this little one shot for ya. Hope you all enjoy. I own nothing of Star Trek. Read and Review!

Leonard McCoy scrubbed a hand wearily through his hair.

He was sitting at a small workstation outside of a hospital room at Starfleet medical. The stark white of his uniform stood out against the muted grays and blues of the hospital decor. His head was bent in focused concentration over his PADD, as he made notes on a patient's chart.

_Patient 001543: James T. Kirk _

He glanced over his shoulder. Through the clear glass of the door behind him he could see Jim, looking like hell, but somehow alive. _Alive_. His heart was beating, the monitors showing a steady rhythm, his chest rising and falling with only the partial assistance of a ventilator.

He turned back to the chart with a sigh, immersing himself in Jim's latest lab results, making notes here and there. He was so immersed in his work that he didn't notice the person walking up the corridor

"Doctor McCoy"

He started, and dropped his PADD, nearly falling out of his chair in fright.

"Damnit, Sulu! Do not sneak up on a man like that. You just about gave me a heart attack!"

Sulu grinned sheepishly and handed him back the PADD. "Sorry Doctor. I was just coming to check in on Captain Kirk. How is he?"

He followed Sulu's gaze over his shoulder. "He's alive. And he's getting better. I'd call it a damn miracle"

They sat in silence for a minute. It really was a miracle, he mused to himself. Not only was Jim alive, but his tests showed amazing improvements every day. His blood counts were steadily moving to a normal range. His brain function was improving remarkably quickly.

"Spock is here." Sulu observed.

Leonard's gaze wandered to the hospital room's other current occupant. "Green blooded hobgoblin has been stuck closer to Jim than white on rice."

"He was fucking scary, Doc". Sulu said quietly. Leonard glanced at Sulu sharply. He hadn't heard much from Spock in the moment's immediately following Jim's death. He had been consumed in his own grief, and then in his desperate measures to save his best friend.

"He came on to the bridge…" Sulu continued. "I've never seen him like that. He's always so…"

"Controlled", Leonard filled in calmly.

Sulu nodded. "But he wasn't. He was…furious. He knew Kahn was alive."

He shook his head. "I'm amazed that psycho bastard stayed that way. Thank God Uhura was there to talk some sense into Spock".

He didn't go into detail with Sulu, but Kahn had been in bad shape when he had been brought back to the _Enterprise_. He had been so busy synthesizing the serum that would save his best friend's life he hadn't bothered to check the injuries, beyond a cursory glance to make sure Kahn was not going to die before he got his sample.

Later, he had looked at M'benga's report. The other physician had patched the psychopath murderer up before sticking him back in cryo. The injury list had been long. _Shattered mandible, fractured ethmoid, disclocated shoulder, fractured patella, multiple fractured ribs…_the list had gone on. It painted a clear picture. Kahn had nearly been beaten to death by Spock's unbridled fury. When pushed over the edge, Spock was terrifying.

"I take it neither of you have really left since we got here, huh?" Sulu said, turning back to him.

"Not really." McCoy admitted. He and Spock and managed to mutually bully eachother into leaving a couple of times for a shower and a change of clothes, but beyond that they had been there since the beginning. He was sleeping in a pull out cot in the room and Spock would simply meditate wherever was convenient.

Sulu nodded and clapped McCoy on the shoulder. "I'll be back. Let me know if anything changes".

He took a moment to watch the young pilot retreat down the hall and turned back to his paperwork with a sigh. He transferred the latest test results from Jim to his notes on serum he had synthesized from Kahn's blood. His ass was on the line with medical board. He had given a patient an untested, untried compound without knowing the effects it would have on the patient. Most would call that unethical.

Leonard McCoy called it saving his best friends life.

Of course he hadn't been the only one who had put his ass on the line for Jim. Spock had done it too. If he had killed Kahn, the consequences might have been severe. Abandoning the ship in such a fragile state was a punishable offense.

He paused his musing for a moment, put his PADD away, and walked back into the hospital room. He took a few moments, busying himself checking Jim's vitals (and feeling his pulse for himself because damnit he just needed to feel with his own hands that Jim _was really, actually alive_), adjusting medications, and checking the ventilator. He could feel Spock's gaze on him.

He realized that this was the one thing above all else that brought the two of them together. This remarkable man, with all his charisma, idiocy, and sometimes downright insanity, gave them a common point in a world where they would have normally been a million miles apart. Jim was their anchor, the golden sun around which they orbited together. They needed him. And he needed them.

He put his hand on Jim's forehead and carefully brushed a couple of stray hairs of the kid's forehead. Whatever it was about the kid, whatever drew both he and Spock to Jim Kirk, and in turn to eachother…he wouldn't trade it for anything. He would follow Jim Kirk and Spock to hell and back (as he had done before…_twice_).

For now, he thought with a smile as he settled into his pull out cot for the night, both he and Spock would be here until Jim was back.

"G'night Spock." He murmured as he punched his pillow into an appropriate shape.

"Goodnight Doctor."


End file.
